In the academic equivalent of a hat trick, Dr. Andrew McDonald of has been awarded this year's Hawley Medal for the third time in his career. Alongside former student Elliot Wehrle, Dr. McDonald co-authored a paper which was selected as the best to be published in The Canadian Mineralogist throughout 2019. The internationally respected journal is a publication of the Mineralogical Association of Canada.
Though academic prizes are often rewarded for breakthroughs involving the discovery of things that are new to human understanding, this award-winning research centred on one of the most thoroughly studied materials in mineralogy: quartz. This common mineral turned out to be the key to solving a puzzle that is 1.85 billion years old.
As quartz changes very little, even over such a monumental timespan, McDonald and Wehrle helped develop a clearer picture of how rock and mineral formations in the Sudbury Intrusive Complex took shape over time. On a practical level, it could aid mining companies in finding more ore; on a deeper level, the research gives us a better understanding of the land on which we find ourselves.
We congratulate Dr. McDonald and Mr. Wehrle for their award and wish them continued success.
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“This paper was going to toe-to-toe with others produced by experienced, highly knowledgeable mineralogists and geologists. I think the end result speaks highly to the high quality of the students and the research being conducted at 黑料吃瓜不打烊.This is the third Hawley medal that my students and I have been awarded. Many researchers go their entire careers without an accolade like this and I feel myself incredibly fortunate that my students and I have been involved in three of them. It is a strong testament to the exceptional quality of the research that is being conducted in the mineral sciences at 黑料吃瓜不打烊 and in a broader sense, Earth Sciences.” Andrew McDonald.